1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an auto-playing apparatus which uses a recording medium having audio data recorded thereon and memory means storing auto-play data to ensure reproduction of the audio data in synchronism with auto-playing based on the auto-play data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Auto-playing apparatuses for use in an electronic musical instrument store pitch data and tone length data, corresponding to each note of a piece of music, into a semiconductor memory according to the progress of the music, reads out these data from the memory and sends them to a tone generator to automatically play the music as memorized. Such auto-playing apparatuses have been proposed and many electronic musical instruments available on the market today have such a function. The technique of an auto-playing apparatus of this type is disclosed in detail in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,171 by Yuzawa et al.
The auto-playing apparatuses are very effective in learning how to play music with an electronic musical instrument, because auto-playing based on auto-play data as a model performance prior to such learning permits a player to easily grasp the whole image of the music to be played. In addition, the player can objectively judge one's own musical performance by executing auto-playing based on key operating signals, which have been produced by the performance and stored as auto-play data in the memory.
A music piece generally consists of a plurality of melodies that are to be played by a plurality of instruments. The learning effect would be further improved if the music, including the entire melody, is played in the background when playing a specific part of the melody. Playing a melody part while listening to the music being played in the background makes it easier for one to grasp the timing for the melody part that the player should play. In this case, as described above, the learning effect would be enhanced by using the aforementioned auto-playing apparatus to auto-play in advance the melody part that the player should play.
This situation can be realized by preparing a recording medium, such as a compact disc or digital audio tape, on which pieces of music are recorded, setting it on a player and playing the desired piece of music while driving the auto-playing apparatus to automatically reproduce auto-play data of a melody part therefrom that one should play.
Unless a switch to start playing the recording medium and a switch to start the auto-playing are operated at predetermined timings, however, sounds reproduced from the recording medium and the auto-playing apparatus would not be synchronized, thus preventing the learning effect from further being improved. If the playing of the recording medium and the auto-playing are to be started at the same timing, both switches should be operated at exactly the same time. If the auto-playing is to start during reproduction of the recording medium, the auto-play start switch should be operated while carefully listening to the reproduced sounds from the recording medium. On the other hand, the recording-medium play start switch should be operated when one desires to start playing the recording medium during the auto-playing. In any case, it is very difficult or unlikely to provide the accurate timings for manually operating those switches.